I assured people who felt bad about Grass Grace not getting chosen by anybody not to worry, and this is why.

As much as I want to focus on characters who haven't been getting much panel time, I couldn't think of anyone I wanted as "person who fails at villainy" more than Ellen. It's sort of one of her things.

Ellen is poking fun at the rival from the second set of Pokemon games, a character who kicked rivalry up a notch by actually stealing one of the starters. I am 100% certain this kid would've just been given one if they'd asked, but they felt they had to do it that way for whatever reason.